Morning Brief: Third Point Makes Big Bet on Alibaba

November 13, 2017
Stephen Taub

Alibaba Group Holding is now the hedge fund’s second largest U.S. long position.

Dan Loeb’s Third Point boosted its stake in
Alibaba Group Holding by nearly 50 percent in the third quarter
to 6.6 million shares. The Chinese internet giant —
one of the market’s hot stocks this year
— is now the multi-strategy firm’s second
largest U.S. long position, accounting for about 9.6 percent of
its U.S. stock portfolio. The purchase of Alibaba shares is one
of the biggest changes Third Point made to its stock portfolio
in the third quarter, according to its latest 13F filing.

The hedge fund also disclosed that DowDuPont is now its
third largest long. Dow Chemical and DuPont completed their merger on September 1, becoming DowDuPont.
Third Point initially disclosed a position in Dow Chemical in
its fourth quarter 2013 letter. While Third Point established
11 new positions in the third quarter of 2017, DowDuPont was
the only one to become a significant part of its portfolio. The
firm also liquidated five smallish positions.

___

Shares of Snap, a favorite among hedge funds and short sellers, rebounded November 10,
rising about 3.1 percent to $12.76.

___

Shares of activist favorite General Electric Co. jumped 2.5
percent to close at $20.49 on November 10. It is a major
position of Trian Fund Management. Last month GE said it elected Trian chief investment officer Ed
Garden to its board of directors.

___

Bill Ackman’s Pershing Square Holdings lost 1.5
percent in the first week of November, extending its loss for
the year to 4.7 percent, according to its weekly published
update.